There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a writer/reporter. For example, did you know that they make an average of $17.6 an hour? That's $36,616 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -10% and produce -5,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
There are certain skills that many writer/reporters have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, computer skills and interpersonal skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a writer/reporter, we found that a lot of resumes listed 20.9% of writer/reporters included news stories, while 15.4% of resumes included online publication, and 6.4% of resumes included daily newspaper. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
If you're interested in becoming a writer/reporter, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 69.2% of writer/reporters have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 17.5% of writer/reporters have master's degrees. Even though most writer/reporters have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a writer/reporter. When we researched the most common majors for a writer/reporter, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on writer/reporter resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a writer/reporter. In fact, many writer/reporter jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many writer/reporters also have previous career experience in roles such as reporter or writer and editor.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of editor you might progress to a role such as owner eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title director of communications and marketing.
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
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The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 20.9% of writer/reporters listed news stories on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and computer skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a writer/reporter. The best states for people in this position are New York, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Alaska. Writer/reporters make the most in New York with an average salary of $50,539. Whereas in Louisiana and Massachusetts, they would average $48,000 and $47,917, respectively. While writer/reporters would only make an average of $47,438 in Alaska, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. District of Columbia
$58,237
Avg. Salary
2. New York
$50,539
Avg. Salary
3. Massachusetts
$47,918
Avg. Salary